from the series Azuma nishiki ukiyo kōdan (“Tales of the Floating World on Eastern Brocade”)publisher: MasudayaThe warrior Asabe Bungonosuke Sadaaki swims with his horse across the turbulent waters of the Sumida River near the Mimawari Shrine. The print belongs to the series Tōkin ukiyo kōdan, consisting of about twenty-seven popular tales of heroism, drama, and violence. Each story was narrated by a different storyteller — in this case Matsudai-ke Taryū — and the accompanying texts were written by the celebrated author Kanagaki Rōbun. Yoshitoshi here combines the heroic tradition of the Utagawa school with a masterful sense of motion, psychological tension, and expressive energy. The work belongs to his early period, already revealing the distinctive sensibility that would later culminate in his masterpieces of the Meiji era.